Exotic Beauty
by Chibi Teazer
Summary: Rated PG for suicidal thoughts etc. This is one of my most serious pieces yet. It sort of came to me one night. It is one of the very few CATS fanfics about Exotica. The unknown Jellicle. Please R/R I really want your opinion on this one. Wheather it's a


Well! I'm back! But this time I'm not writing a spoof or anything like that. This is one of my much more serious fics. Based around one of the never heard cats. This is one of the very few Exotica fics. I hope you like. I love this fic and I was sooooo desperate at home to write it.  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own them. They belong to a green leprechaun who owns a pizza shop in New York. Hmmmm… actually they belong to RUG and Andy Lloyd Webber.  
  
Thankx go to everyone who reads my fics and reviews. Especially to JestaAriadne who has read all of my fics I think and has left very nice reviews on all of them. There are plenty other people to thank but I'll make a list and do it next time because you want to get onto the story right (  
  
So here it is!:  
  
1  
  
2 Exotic Beauty  
  
I have always been the silent one of the tribe. No one ever seems to notice me at all. I slink into the yard on the warm summer day and look at all the other cats. They hardly lift a head to my arrival. It has always been that way. Ever since I was first found and brought to the tribe. I can still remember that day so vividly. The screech of a car horn as it brakes just in time to leave me alive in the middle of the street. Yet it filled me with so much fear that I ran. I ran until I could run no more and then fell. Exhaustion took me and I collapsed in a side street. Someone must have found me. I suppose it was one of the younger cats who uses the dark back alleys. Maybe Jerrie or Teazer. I still don't know. They took me back and fed me, warmed me until I was well again. I don't know why they bothered. They never really look at me anymore. Then they named me Exotica. The one cat who is completely different in the tribe. No one notices. And as I look around the junkyard on this summer day I can see all the cats in their 'couples'. Teazer and Jerrie, Bombi and Tugger, Cori and Tantomile, Munku and Demi. They don't seem to realise how much I want that. None of the toms ever court me. I'm different. Not hideously ugly just different. I never sing or dance at the ball. I just sit and watch them. The only cat who really acknowledges my existence ever is Cassandra and only because we are almost the 'same'. Sameness is probably one of the most important things in this Jellicle tribe. All the kittens must be bouncy and happy all the time. That was probably what put any of the toms my age off of me, as I was never bouncy and happy. The one tom that I seem to be drawn to however never notices me. He is to busy with the new kitten Victoria. Everyone is drawn to her. Her beautiful white coat shimmers as she moves and she has the most beautiful collar. Studded with diamonds. Every time I see her I try to hide in shame. WHY? Why couldn't I be like her? Why am I so different to her? She doesn't seem to realise how lucky she is. As I leave the junkyard that morning no one notices. I wander to the park and sit on a hill. If I could cry I probably would. I look at the traffic whizzing past on the main street below me. Wouldn't it be ironic to end my time with the Jellicle tribe in almost the same way that I showed up to them? The thought of suicide scares me. I know that I can't go through with it but if I honestly tried who would stop me? Who would stop Exotica the foreign cat who just showed up one day? No one would and I know that. As I look into the distance I can see him, the one I love, with Victoria. That is the moment I realise that I want to leave the earth. I don't want to be here at all! No one wants me. No one really wants me around at all. I can feel my feet moving on their own down to the gutter. I stare up to the sky and speak.  
  
"Everlasting cat, this is the only way. I'm sure no one will miss me."  
  
One of the rare moments when I speak. I look back into the traffic. As I take one step out I hear the voice that I've so many times longed to hear address me.  
  
"Don't do it Exotica. Please."  
  
I don't turn around. I know that voice so well. He places a paw on my shoulder. I still don't yield. Facing the road I whisper.  
  
"Why? No one honestly cares about the alien. I've heard it said many times. Siamese like myself are hated among you."  
  
I hear him gasp a little. He has probably never heard me speak so lowly of myself. Hell! I don't think he's ever heard me speak at all. That'd be right.  
  
"Alien? How can you say that of yourself?"  
  
"BECAUSE I AM!" I scream into nothingness.  
  
That would have surprised him. I'm sure.  
  
"Compared to the rest of you I am a immigrant monster! Even Cassandra! And she's almost exactly the same as me!" I can feel tenseness pull my body into a tight ball on the pavement.  
  
"I assure you. That is not what I think."  
  
I lay there in a ball. Silent and oblivious to the world outside. I can feel his stroking my back. How many times I have wished for this? So many that it's uncountable.  
  
"Come back with me. Come back with me." He says over and over again.  
  
I allow him to 'uncurl' me and lead me back home.  
  
Home.  
  
That word has never seemed right to me as much as it does now. All of a sudden I feel right. I feel like I belong. This is all so right. As we near the junkyard I can hear Victoria. She sounds frantic.  
  
"She was g-going t-to jump-p innto traffic!"  
  
I hang my head in shame. It is one thing for a Jellicle to think of committing suicide but another to actually try and do it. I can hear the older cats draw breath almost in fear. I put a paw up to my now burning face. Ashamed. I know that I will be punished for this crime. As we enter the junkyard all talking ceases. I stare up at the leader. I am surprised to see not anger in his eyes but relief. I look around confused. All the cats are not staring at me in hate but in expectation. They want me to explain. I can't. And as I run away to one of the far corners of the yard I can hear Brutus explain what I said to him. They all gasp but I don't turn around. I find an old box to hide in. This is where I can stay. I stare up to the sky. The moon is starting to appear. I stare at the moon and the stars. The Everlasting Cat put me on the earth for a reason. And I still don't understand what that reason is. The clump on the top of the box startles me and I run out to see him staring down at me from his platform above. He jumps down and settles next to me. I can hear his tail brushing the ground. He wants to ask me something. I can tell.  
  
"Why?"  
  
And I know exactly what he means.  
  
"I have never understood why I am here. Some people would say that I'm lucky. But I'm not. I'm ever so different."  
  
"Different? How? You are still feline. You are young and agile and you are.." he falters on his last word.  
  
"And?"  
  
"And you are beautiful." He looks away from me.  
  
I have never been complimented. This is so new to me.  
  
"B-but… you li-ke Victoria.." I say confused as much as possible.  
  
"She's a good friend yes. But I don't like her in that way."  
  
We sit not talking. The words don't need to be spoken. His tail and mine entwine as we sit in the moonlight. And he nuzzles me. So soft and warm. I have always wondered about this.  
  
"Be my mate?" he asks suddenly.  
  
I gulp in surprise. And stare at him. The desperation in his eyes is evident.  
  
"Of course."  
  
Simple easy reply.  
  
"I love you Exotica.. my Exotic Beauty." He says to me nuzzling my head. And as we wander back to the main part of the yard I look into the sky. The everlasting cat put me here for a reason and I just found it. Simple as that. I am not the alien, foreign bizzare cat that I always thought I was. I am an Exotic Beauty. 


End file.
